The Le Mans circuit has one of the longest traditions of Grand Prix racing on the current MotoGP schedule. Below are some facts and figures about Grand Prix racing at Le Mans:
Le Mans has hosted a Grand Prix event on 26 previous occasions, including the Grand Prix ‘Vitesse du Mans’ in 1991, which was the only season when two Grand Prix events have been held in France in the same year Le Mans was first used for a Grand Prix event in 1969, when the 500 race was won by Giacomo Agostini, who lapped all other riders on his MV Agusta.
The Le Mans circuit has been used for the MotoGP event for the last 14 years in succession, starting in 2000.
Since the introduction of the four-stroke MotoGP formula in 2002, Honda have had six wins at Le Mans, Yamaha five and Suzuki one, in 2007 with Chris Vermeulen – Suzuki’s only GP victory in the four-stroke MotoGP era to date.
The riders with most victories at Le Mans are Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, who have each stood on the top step of the podium on four occasions; Lorenzo has had a single win in the 250 class to add to his three MotoGP wins, whereas Pedrosa has won once in the 125 class, twice in 250s and last year in the MotoGP class for the first time.
There have been five GP wins at Le Mans by French riders: Jean Aureal won the 125 race in 1969, Guy Bertin the 125 race in 1979, Patrick Fernandez the 350 race in 1979, Mike di Meglio the 125 race in 2008 and Louis Rossi the Moto3TM race in 201.
In addition to Le Mans, there have been seven other circuits that have hosted the French GP (the figure in brackets is the number of times each circuit has hosted the French Grand Prix): Paul Ricard (13), Clermont-Ferrand (10), Nogaro (2), Reims (2), Rouen (2), Albi (1) and Magny-Cours (1).
At the Spanish Grand Prix, Marc Marquez continued his perfect season of winning every race from pole position and in doing so he has re-written the record books:
Marquez is the first rider to win the opening four races of the year in the premier class since Mick Doohan in the 500 tier in 1992.
He is the first rider to win four successive premier class races from pole position since Valentino Rossi at the final three races of 2003 and the opening race of 2004.
He is the first rider to win the opening four races of the year, all from pole position, since Giacomo Agostini in the 500 class in 1971. That year, Agostini continued winning from pole all the way through to the eighth race of the year in Finland.
In addition to his four pole positions this year, Marquez also started from pole at the final race of 2013. The last rider to qualify on pole in five successive MotoGP races was Casey Stoner in 2011.
Marquez has a championship lead of 28 points over team-mate Dani Pedrosa. This is the largest points advantage after the first four races in the MotoGP class since 2005, when Valentino Rossi had a 37-point margin over Marco Melandri after the first four races.
His victory at the Spanish GP was his first victory at the Jerez circuit, which until then had been the only venue left on the current GP schedule on which he had not won in his Grand Prix career. He is now the only rider to have won at all circuits on the 2014 calendar.
He is also the only rider to have started from a World Championship pole position at all of the circuits on the 2014 schedule.
At the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, Marquez has the potential to achieve the following:
Victory would make him the youngest ever rider, at the age of 21 years and 90 days, to win five successive races in the premier class, taking the record from Mike Hailwood who was 22 years and 160 days old when he won five successive races in the 500 class in 1962, riding an MV Agusta.
By winning in France, he could become the first rider since Valentino Rossi on a Yamaha in 2008 to win five successive MotoGP races.
He could become the first rider since Giacomo Agostini in 1972, riding an MV Agusta, to win the opening five races of the year in the premier class.
If Marquez qualifies on pole and wins the race, this would be the first time that a rider has won five or more successive premier class races from pole since Mick Doohan, on a Honda, won ten successive races from pole in 1997.
If Marquez is the fastest qualifier at Le Mans, this will mark the first time that a rider has started from pole at six or more consecutive MotoGP races since Casey Stoner was on pole at seven successive races in 2008, riding a Ducati.
The victory by Marc Marquez at Jerez marked the 36th time that he had stood on the top step of the podium in his Grand Prix career. This is just one less GP win than Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martinez achieved over his career, during which he won four world titles: three in the 80cc class and one in 125s. At the age of just 21, Marquez is already the 16th most successful GP rider of all-time in terms of Grand Prix wins.
Dani Pedrosa’s third place finish at Jerez was the 88th time that he had stood on the podium since moving up to the MotoGP class in 2006. As shown in the table below, this is the same number of podium finishes in the premier class as eight-time 500 World Champion Giacomo Agostini. Valentino Rossi tops the list and is on target to become the first rider to reach the milestone of 150 podium appearances in the premier class of Grand Prix racing.
Three French riders will line up on the intermediate class grid at Le Mans, as Moto2 regulars Johann Zarco and Louis Rossi are joined by wildcard entry Lucas Mahias (Promoto Sport).
Marc VDS Racing Team head to Le Mans having won three of the opening four Grands Prix of the year; between Tito Rabat and Mika Kallio, the duo have led almost 65% of racing laps so far in 2014 (57 laps in comparison with 31 for the rest of the field put together).
Simone Corsi’s run of consecutive fifth place finishes came to an end last time out in Jerez, as the Italian crashed twice during the race - a misfortune also suffered by Sam Lowes.
Le Mans is the most successful circuit to date in the career of Tom Luthi, who won the 125 races of 2005 and 2006; on top of this, his victory of 2012 means he is the only rider on the current Moto2 grid to have won at Le Mans in the class.
A total of four riders on the current Moto2 grid have won at Le Mans: Tom Luthi (as explained above), Julian Simon (won the 125 race in 2009), Maverick Viñales (clinched his career-first win in 125s in 2011 plus last year’s Moto3 race) and Louis Rossi (Moto3 in 2012).
None of the riders on the Moto3 grid have won in any World Championship class at Le Mans.
Jack Miller and Romano Fenati have each won 50% of the four Grands Prix so far in 2014, with Fenati’s victory at Jerez having been the 50th for KTM in Grand Prix racing; this also means that Spanish riders, who won every race in 2013, are yet to pick up a victory this year.
As is the case in Moto2, three French riders will race in their home Moto3 event and these also consist of two class regulars and one wildcard: Alexis Masbou
and Jules Danilo will be joined on the lightweight grid by Reynald Castillon (Team RMS), who makes his GP debut.
Over the course of the opening four Moto3 races this season, three riders have finished on the podium on three occasions: Jack Miller, Romano Fenati and Efren Vazquez – however, only once have the trio locked out a rostrum and this was in Austin.
With 12 podium positions having been on offer so far in 2014, KTM and Honda have collected six apiece from the Losail, Austin, Termas de Rio Hondo and Jerez events.
At his home Grand Prix, Jules Danilo will celebrate his 19th birthday on race day.
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